Under-Qualified Sysadmin Crashed Amazon.Com For 3 Hours With A Typo
The Register, Monday, July 21st, 2025
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Ken" who told us that over 20 years ago he scored a job at Amazon.com as a Linux sysadmin, a role for which he admitted he was "completely unqualified."
He previously worked as a Solaris admin, experience that earned him an interview at Amazon. He quickly studied Linux, got the job, and soon found that the Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment in place at the time was very different to Solaris!
Despite his inexperience, Amazon gave Ken the job of upgrading the e-tail giant's tape backup application.
"I spent months planning and testing because with this upgrade configuration files changed and we were required to make new ones and push them out with the update," Ken told Who, Me? "I created those files and did all the necessary tests. Everything appeared to be fine, and the day came when we pushed the button."